The Last House on the Left

This was Wes Craven's directorial debut and it was intended to shock. It is a violent and brutally honest tale of revenge which was released to divided opinion in 1972. A gang of misfits, recently escaped from prison, kidnap two teenage girls and subject them to a horrific ordeal in the forest. When they finally kill their victims the gang try to hole up in a house nearby but it turns out to be owned by the parents of one of the girls they have murdered and a terrible revenge awaits them. This may be an important film for the horror genre portraying a new sense of realism with the violence on show and not relying on a boogeyman character or monster for scares but it is undeniably rough around the edges and far from an enjoyable experience to watch.